Where did you store your children’s stem cells? I’m fairly certain that the vast majority of readers were not asked this question when they became parents.
Mothercare vouchers and ear plugs might have been requested, but competitive offers on storing the stem cells derived from a newborn’s umbilical cord blood weren’t high up our family’s wish list. But over the nearly two decades (yes, I’m that old) since my partner and I had kids, something has changed.
Some interesting, very adventurous, investment avenues are opening up in the world of healthcare where I’ve noticed a number of developing trends. There’s the body augmentation brigade (think bionic implants) who cross over with the bodily transcendence movement, grouped loosely around transhumanism and the coming singularity. As Mark O’Connell so brilliantly explores in his wonderful new book To be a Machine, there are a growing number of people who want to transcend their “mortal flesh” by cryogenically freezing themselves.
Speeding along a different track is the revolution in the genomics and biotech industries which is introducing a range of new treatments and testing possibilities. Then there’s the “quantification of the self” movement who are hot on their healthcare measurement apps.
Finally, less prominently perhaps, there are the stem cell entrepreneurs who argue that the rate of scientific progress is speeding up at such a rate that all manner of ailments might be curable in the future if you have harvested and stored those all important newborn stem cells.
WideCells Group PLC (LON:WDC) is building an integrated stem cell services company, focused on making stem cell treatments accessible and affordable. The Directors believe that the use of cord blood stem cells for transplant will drive one of the next important phases in medicine and is therefore developing market leading products in complementary, strategic areas which are designed to take advantage of substantial market opportunities in one of the fastest growing segments in the healthcare industry.
